The City of Fremantle is part of the larger Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC), where local governments in southern Perth work together to provide waste and recycling services for our residents.

Since 2016 CoF have been working closely with the other member councils to assess the merits of the three bin system, including a trial with 7000 homes in the City of Melville.

The results from the trial so far have been better than expected, with the bins being used correctly and less contamination of the FOGO bins than anticipated.

Subject to final approval, the three bin system will be introduced to more than 13,000 residential households in Fremantle in July and August next year.

The roll-out will include high-profile education program to let people know what to put in each bin and how the system will work.

Because of issues with access and space the roll-out will not include high-density areas like the city centre and some town houses, commercial properties or residential complexes with more than four units, although this will be subject to review over time.

The new system will mean the City will need to carry out an additional 400,000 bin lifts per year.

The capital cost of setting up the system – including purchasing the new bins – will be around $1.2 million, while additional ongoing operational costs will be between $250,000 and $350,000 per year.

One Response

I think the two bin system could be made to work and hence save significant funds. To do that the rules need to change slightly.

When I did the recycling tour, admittedly a few years ago, what we were told we ought do was slightly different to what the instruction we still receive with the annual schedule.

The tour demonstrated and explained the two major processes in detail, we watched them in operation. One is only about processing organic waste, anything that was once alive, essentially waste from food and gardening. It gets scooped up and dumped into the organic tumbling machines that turn the waste into compost, after the tumbling it goes into other processes before being available to supply farmers etc.

That waste is what should be in the Green lidded bin and only that, not even containers that can’t be composted, like plastic bags; only paper based containers, even they should be limited!

However, the instruction on the schedule say that 10% of general rubbish can go in the green bin. So, for lazy and/or disinterested anything goes into the green bin, with the added advantage it is collected every week! Had a party lets get rid of the booze bottles, whoopee -do!

The Yellow lidded bin is sorted with a complex arrangement of manual and automated processes, and machinery. This is really the best place for waste you aren’t sure where to put it, ie, general waste, as anything that fails the auto and standard manual processes, gets looped back for manual inspection and decision making.

IMO what Freo should do is to trial what I have described, ie, the process recommended by the staff at the recycling centre, (as opposed to the literature).

Essentially, the Green bin is only for anything that was once alive! Everything else goes in the Yellow bin. Surely it is worth a trail in Freo? That is: a re-education process for the trial group, and an assessment at the recycling centre of such a change, say, everybody in Wednesday’s collection. It can’t that hard a trial to organise, and could result in financial savings, both capital and operational.